LEFT: Titian, Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos (detail), 1547, National Gallery of Art, Samuel H. Kress Collection. RIGHT: Sir Anthony van Dyck, The Virgin as Intercessor (detail), 1628/1629, National Gallery of Art, Widener Collection.

Artists often use light to denote supernatural events and spiritual enlightenment, as seen in Titian's Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos and Sir Anthony van Dyck's The Virgin as Intercessor.